Life-threatening COVID-19 in a thymoma patient with anti-interferon-α autoantibodies.

Neutralizing anti-interferon (IFN)-α autoantibodies can lead to immune dysregulation, potentially resulting in critical coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We report a case presenting with severe COVID-19 who was subsequently diagnosed to have thymoma and neutralizing anti-IFN-α autoantibodies.

A nonparametric method for classification trees using grouped covariates.

A group of variables are commonly seen in diagnostic medicine when multiple prognostic factors are aggregated into a composite score to represent the risk profile. A model selection method considers these covariates as all-in or all-out types. Model selection procedures for grouped covariates and their applications have thrived in recent years, in part because of the development of genetic research in which gene-gene or gene-environment interactions and regulatory network pathways are considered groups of individual variables.

Critical Care Nurses' Perceptions of Clinical Alarm Management on Nursing Practice.

The alarm management of physiological monitoring systems is a key responsibility of critical care nurses. However, the high numbers of false and nonactionable (true but clinically irrelevant) alarms cause distractions to healthcare professionals, interruptions to nursing workflow, and ignoring of crucial tasks. Therefore, understanding how nurses manage large amounts of alarms in their daily work could provide a direction to design interventions to prevent adverse patient care effects.

Critical Care Nurses' Perceptions of Clinical Alarm Management on Nursing Practice.

The management of alarms is a key responsibility of critical care nurses. A qualitative study with focus group interviews were conducted with 37 nurses in Taiwan. Four main themes were derived: the foundation of critical care practice, a trajectory of adjust alarms management, negative impacts on care quality and patient safety, hope for remote control and multimodal learning.

Pneumopericardium secondary to oesophageal cancer presenting as myocardial infarction: a case report.

The diagnosis of pneumopericardium can be challenging, as the symptoms are sometimes non-specific and can mimic those of other diseases. Especially, focal pneumopericardium presenting with regional ST-segment elevation on the electrocardiogram can be difficult to diagnose. Here, we present the case of a patient with pneumopericardium secondary to oesophageal cancer that was first diagnosed with community-acquired pneumonia and subsequently classified with acute coronary syndrome after an episode of cardiac arrest.

Unexpected cardio-circulatory arrest during a brain-dead donor organ retrieval.

According to the Maastricht classification category of donation after circulatory death (DCD), type IV DCD refers to brain-dead donors who are re-categorized after unexpected circulatory arrest before donor organ retrieval. Clinical management is challenging, even in intensive care units, where most of this type of organ donation occurs. We report a case of the first successful lung transplantation (LTx) using type IV DCD organ in Taiwan.

Evaluation of an online orientation program for new healthcare employees.

Online learning is one of the newest efforts of mainstream healthcare education. It has been cited as providing both an efficient and effective alternative learning medium. This study explored the acceptance of an online orientation program by new healthcare employees and identified several critical factors affecting online learning outcomes.

[Using innovation diffusion theory to improve implementation of nursing information systems].

The application of health information technology (IT) to improve healthcare efficiency and quality is an increasingly critical task for all healthcare organizations due to rapid improvements in IT and growing concerns with regard to patient safety. While a growing field of evidence supports that nurses frequently play key roles in steering the healthcare industry to achieve such goals, adoption and diffusion of technology remain complex processes. The application of IT still makes many nurses uneasy, while a main question remains whether nursing staff are willing to use state-of-the-art IT in their routine work.